Repainting the Land Cruiser Saga

[cahill]

Warning: This thread may be a bit dry and drawn out - read at your own risk of getting bored.



I figured I'd start a thread documenting re-painting my Land Cruiser as people are starting to consider re-painting/refreshing the tired paint on these 20+year old vehicles. The point of this is to help people understand what they may be getting themselves into with the process as well as show some of the steps in removing some of the body parts. The FSM does a good job with this but sometimes having photos of what things look like once they are removed can help.

Often times it isn’t the difficulty of doing something that keeps people from embarking on the project as much as it is not knowing what you’re getting into or fear of messing things up. I have not had a vehicle painted before and haven’t removed the entire interior/headliner either. I am not a mechanic nor do I have much knowledge/experience when it comes to these things. Mud and the FSM have been very helpful and if I can do this, so can anyone else. I was in for a few hiccups along the way and so likely will anyone doing this, but hopefully this will help people be better prepared for undertaking a paint job.

Here is a photo of the vehicle before paint that was taken a few years ago. It had the usual clear coat failing that only got worse over the ensuing years but the real reason to paint it was to get rid of some body rust that was starting to show up before it got worse.

 

[cahill]

Reasons for doing this:

This is a time consuming project and expensive, but I am hoping to keep this vehicle long term as are many others here. One must take account of long term plans and cost important before going through this and making sure your vehicle is worth the cost of repainting. You could probably buy a used land cruiser for the price of repainting one but then again you are buying someone else’s 20 year old vehicle that likely has some issues and likely still needs repainting.

This vehicle is relatively rust free but did have some minor rust issues. I decided to undertake this process due to the infamous roof rack rust that tends to show up and wanted to tackle it before it became a big problem. The fender flares and hood also had the typical clear coat peeling and wanted to clean that up as well. The engine and drivetrain on my vehicle have been great and I have about 10 years of history with maintaining this vehicle so I am pretty familiar with it and what has been refreshed mechanically. Lastly I don't want anyone to think this has been a quick process. I started planning and buying parts several years ago (thanks @Onur for all your help) and got the actual process started in June of 2019. As of the writing of this I am still trying to re-assemble things and get it back together. I am not the fastest worker out there but I try to make sure I take care of things as I go and avoid having to do things over a second time.

Here is just a sample of some of the parts purchased. I deiced to replace the door seals, window runs, window gasekets, new front OEM window glass, exterior window trim etc.

 

[cahill]

Finding a shop:

An obvious major factor in a project like this is finding a body shop that you trust and that fits the budget. I went to about 15 different shops and researched quite a few more. Even with the best research things can go wrong. A lesson to take away from this is that if you are letting someone else do the work and you are particular, you will likely be disappointed somewhere down the line on this project. Not many people out there will take the same level of care and detail in their work that you will. If I had the skill and equipment I would have painted it myself.

I received quotes varying from around $3,500 to $30,000. Some of the quotes were clearly an indication that the shop didn’t want the work but could be convinced to do it for a price. Others on the high end seemed to be competent and would likely have done a great job. I couldn’t justify 30,000 dollars though and likely would still have run into some hiccups.

In an attempt to be objective and have clear expectations from both sides I provided an itemized list that I went over with the shop owners item by item. I didn’t want to be given a low quote followed by a significant adjustment once the work was started or for the work to be shortcutted after agreeing to a particular way of fixing something. I also wanted them to be well aware of my perfectionist tendencies and that I could be hard to please and they could refuse to take on the work. Special thanks to @Kernal for the help and advice about looking for shops and glass installers.

My first hiccup came after I had done all of what was listed above, got a quote and selected a shop. After I dropped off the vehicle the manner the service manager’s attitude suddenly seemed to have changed. No longer were they as interested in hearing how I wanted things to be taken care of and instead he started implying they were going to do things differently. I had talked to them about welding shut the roof holes after taking care of the rust and that this would require dropping the headliner. They were fine with that until I dropped off the vehicle. They changed directions and wanted to try to weld the roof holes shut without taking the headliner down all the way and instead stuffing a welding blanket between the headliner and roof. I picked up the vehicle and started my search again. This in part led to me taking out the interior and headliner myself since no one else wanted to give me a quote without seeing the damage first.

 

[cahill]

Disassembly of the Interior:

I started by taking out the seats. Pull the carpet, and take off the interior garnishes. This really isn’t hard to do and is mostly unbolting the seats and seatbelts and unclipping the plastic slide pieces and door cards. I would suggest buying a plastic automotive trim removal kit. It will save busting clips and trim and not mark/damage the vehicle. The FSM does a pretty good job with this.



The most difficult interior pieces to remove were the B pillar parts with the seatbelts and may be the moonroof control panel. It is a good idea to take pictures as you go and to label the parts well and bag the hardware in separate labeled containers to make things easier when re-assembling.



I then took out the weather stripping and other garnishes and grab handles etc. With the help of my wife we then took out the headliner starting with the clips towards the rear and working forward to the front of the car and then just carefully carried in out the back of the vehicle.

 

[cahill]

Couple more of dissassembly:

 

[cahill]

Finally got it all out including the headliner.

 

[cahill]

Disassembly of the exterior:

Once the interior was out, the fender flares and clips were much more accessible. I removed the nuts holding the fender flares from inside the quarter panels and front wheel wells and then used a plastic tool to pry the fender flare out of the clips and separated the fender flare gasket from the body.

 

[cahill]

Disassembly of the roof:

Once the headliner was out I had full access to the underside of the roof in case any nutserts spun when removing the roof rack. A couple of them did which but a pair of vice grips made it easy to hold them still when removing the bold/screw from above. Thankfully despite the rust bubbling on the roof, it hadn’t eaten into the interior. Even if it had, it should have been an easy fix for the body shop to weld in some new metal after cutting out the cancer.

Removal of the rack and roof ribs are pretty self-explanatory. The ribs are capped at the front and back with a piece the screws into the roof and then just slides off a rubber track. The rubber track is just held onto the roof with what looks like some double sided tape.

 

[NorCalFJ100]

What State/Area are you located in?

 

[cahill]

Dropping the Moon Roof:

Once the headliner is out, dropping the moon roof is a very simple process of just dethatching the 4 drain tubes and undoing the nuts that hold it in place. This was one of those things that I was timid about but is super simple to do. The roof and tray come out as one large piece. Having taken it out, it suddenly becomes apparent how important it is to keep the drain tubes functional since there is not a water tight seal where the moon roof meets the roof surface. Water will leak through that area and drain into the large drain pan and then out the tubes to the ground.

 

[cahill]

Gutter Trim:

Something that comes up quite often on Mud is the gutter trim and if it can be removed etc. It is very easy to remove but being 20 years old it may get damaged in the process. They can still be bought last I checked but are quite large and unwieldy and not great for shipping. This is an item that would probably be best to buy from a dealership locally if you plan to replace them.

 

[96bruizer]

That work you did should cut off a couple thousand or more $ in labor cost.

 

[cahill]

Door Cards:

Forgot to mention taking out the door cards. They are self-explanatory enough. There are a couple of screws hidden under handles or under the trim but it isn’t difficult. The only part that gave me a little pause was the triangular plastic piece that covers the interior where the rear view mirror attaches. Turns out it just pops out with a retaining clip much like the ones for the headlights and the rear brake light on the upper hatch.

Another thing that had been bothering me for a while was the vapor barrier on the rear driver side door. Some genius decided to slash it when doing a repair some point along the line in its previous life and used duct tape to hold it back together. It worked but isn’t pretty and it bugged me. Found out that the vapor barriers could still be bought so I ordered one and replaced it. For those who are not aware, the vapor barrier is held on by butyl tape and the barrier can be removed by gently prying it off and using a very sharp blade to cut the webs of the butyl tape as it stretches. Try to leave some of the tape on the door and some on the vapor barrier. The tape self-heals when you press the two sides back together.

 

[cahill]

That work you did should cut off a couple thousand or more $ in labor cost.

Yeah it should have, but my experience was that the quotes were the same before I did the labor and after I did the labor of removing everything. I started shopping for quotes 6 months to a year before and went back to a couple of the shops that had given me quotes previously guessing that they probably didn't remember what they had quoted before. Sure enough they quoted similar prices when I brought them the bare vehicle and some even quoted more.

 

[chatt100]

How much did it cost you for all the door seals, window runs, etc? Thinking of replacing all the rubber in mine. Did the drivers door and that was about $350 from the local dealership!

 

[cahill]

How much did it cost you for all the door seals, window runs, etc? Thinking of replacing all the rubber in mine. Did the drivers door and that was about $350 from the local dealership!

A quick tally of replacing all the rubber including front windshiel and rear windshield, quater panel window gaskets and runs, door seals and window runs came out to about $1700 .

 

[cahill]

Bumper and Grill Removal:

Lastly I pulled the bumpers and grill. It also is easy and self-explanatory. Removing the front headlights had me scratching my head a few times in the past. There are a couple of screws/bolts holding them in place and another little clip that comes loose if you give the headlamp a good bump forward (hit it from the side but in a direction towards the front of the vehicle) and it will pop out as long as the other screws have been removed.

 

[cahill]

Body Shop:

Dropped it off at the body shop after finding one that seemed decent and seemed willing to accept my pickiness. They offered a 15 year warranty on their work including the areas that had rust. Seemed like a decent deal but in hindsight most body shops don’t keep the same owner for 15 years so they can probably quote whatever warranty they want and not have to honor it since they will be long gone by the time any problems show up.

Looked decent at a glance but didn't take long to find little things that a bit of prep on their part would have gone a long way. In the photo above you can still see that gasket sealer where the frond wind shield was removed. This clearly has to be removed before window installation and since that area is one that is prone to have rust issues it would have been better had they removed the gasket material first and adressed the rust. Removing that after paint risks damaging the pain and finding areas of rust that still need fixing. Thankfully there wasn't any paint damage when the window installers scraped off the old gasket sealer.

In the photo below is some overspray that tagged my new rear hatch struts . Some simple precautions would have kept them looking new and clean.

 

[cahill]

Body Shop Woes:

Went back the following day to check on progress and was in for a bit of a surprise.

Found that in the rush to get the job done they sprayed the fender flares the color of the bumpers

It would have given the land cruiser an interesting look, but not one that I was interested in having so they had to re-spray them.

Found out at this time too that the shop was just bought and under new ownership which happened right around the time of me selecting this shop. No one told me they were changing and the new owner was pushing hard to get rid of all the “old jobs” that were in the shop. He ended up firing everyone too so the painter whom I spoke with and gave me the quote and went over in detail my expectations was suddenly gone.

 

[cahill]

Shortly there after the new shop owner called and told me it was time to pick up the land cruiser. Brought her home and was too frustrated to deal with all the little problems that kept showing up so I let her sit for a bit.